For the past 20 years, no music festival has carved out as distinct a niche as Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival. Started in 1999 by Shawn and Mark Stern, the brothers behind BYO Records, as well as founding members of the legendary Los Angeles punk band Youth Brigade, Punk Rock Bowling is one of the few events where the music is just as important as camaraderie—and a little friendly competition. And for its 20th-anniversary celebration, Punk Rock Bowling is going for broke.

“We never even thought about it going two years,” says Mark Stern about the festival’s longevity. “We just set up a party for all our friends in bands and labels, and since everyone had such a great time the first year, more people wanted to come out, so we did it again next year.” That spirit has been carried into each year of Punk Rock Bowling, and the 2018 iteration, which takes place in Las Vegas from May 25-28, shows that it’ll be bigger, better, and a bit more eccentric than years past. Starting on Friday, May 25, Punk Rock Bowling kicks off the weekend with intimate late night club shows that also run all weekend long after the festival stage lets out which runs Sat. May 26 through Monday, May 28.

But what would Punk Rock Bowling be without its adopted sport of choice? In addition to all the bands, there will be an amateur bowling tournament with over 800 participants on Saturday, May 26, offering a series of cash prizes and other assorted goodies before the finals on Sunday, May 27. And if bowling isn’t your thing, on Friday, May 25, there will be a winner-take-all Texas Hold ‘em poker tournament at the Golden Nugget. Never mind the fact there will be pool parties, free comedy shows, punk rock movie screenings, and punk rock lounge acts all scattered throughout the four-day weekend. “I think a lot of the reason that it has continued to grow is because it’s a lot different from a normal festival,” says Mark. “Plus, it’s in Vegas, where there is no curfew. So it just never ends if you don’t want it to.”

The 20th anniversary of Punk Rock Bowling will feature a who’s who of punk bands from all eras of the genre’s storied history. Headlining this year will be Chicago’s Rise Against, a band that’s taken melodic hardcore to new heights with every one of their albums. This is the band’s first time at Punk Rock Bowling, but they’re not the only band new to the festival. In 2018, a an entire wave of first-timers will be taking the stage at Punk Rock Bowling, with a very rare appearance from the elusive At The Drive In, L7, Steve Ignorant performing early CRASS songs, The Marked Men, The Partisans, and British sensation, Slaves (UK) all getting in on the action. “I’m constantly looking for new bands to add to the older reunion type lineups to give young bands a chance and introduce them to our audience,” says Mark. And while Punk Rock Bowling does a bang-up job in that regard, they’ve invited some old friends back to Vegas, with bands such as one of PRB’s main staples, NOFX, along with Against Me!, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Turbonegro returning this year.

It’s a cavalcade that’s befitting of the Sterns’ initial vision, which was to make an event that was less of a music festival and more of a social gathering. Built on the DIY ethos that has informed every part of the Stern brothers’ careers, Punk Rock Bowling is pulling out all the stops for its 20th anniversary, making it the kind of punk rock cornucopia that has a little something for everyone. “Our goal is to make people want to come back. We want them to have a great time and not feel like they’ve been had,” says Stern. “After all, if it wasn’t for the fans, this weekend would never exist.”

Three-day tickets for Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival are $150 and are on sale now.
Single-day tickets and the daily lineups will be announced in 2018.

Chicago-based Dead Ending have announced that they will release their latest full-length album Shoot The Messenger on November 17 2017. Featuring members of successful Chicago bands such as Alkaline Trio, Rise Against, Articles of Faith, and Ensign, and with former tracks sporting titles “Class War” and “Ivanka Wants Her Orange Back”, the release promises to be a deeply political one.

Previous efforts from the band have been released through Bridge Nine, however, this time the band will work with Alternative Tentacles to bring their music to the public.

Hey look, Rise Against released a new album. Wolves is the band’s eighth full length studio album, and if you haven’t accepted the fact that they’ve settled into a very specific sound by now, you’re in for a world of disappointment. It’s been eleven years (!) since the band put out The Sufferer & the Witness, and other than switching out one guitarist for another, very little else has changed since then. Whether that’s a pro or a con is up to the listener.

Wolves is full of melodic-punk songs that could easily be interchanged with tracks off The Black Market without anyone noticing. That sounds like an insult, but it’s not meant to be one. Much like many of their Fat Wreck and Epitaph contemporaries, Rise Against have found their comfort zone and are sticking to it. Sure, Tim unleashes his scream here and there, like in the title track or “Too Many Walls” and there’s a hint of ska in “Bullshit” but the album is largely filled with 3 and a half minute songs that coast the line between societal politics and personal politics and are loaded with plenty of harmonizing “whoas.” Sometimes it pays off (“House on Fire” and “Mourning in Amerika” are catchy enough to satisfy anyone who enjoyed past singles “Tragedy + Time” and “Audience of One”) and sometimes it doesn’t (“Far from Perfect,” and “Politics of Love” aren’t terrible, but they’re certainly not memorable either).

“Megaphone” and “Broadcast[Signal]Frequency” are among the best songs on the album and it’s a shame that they’ve been relegated to bonus track status. Both are fast and aggressive- two traits that are often missing from the band’s current output. If you’re only going to listen to a handful of songs from the album, make it these two. They don’t accurately reflect the album proper, but to put it bluntly, these two songs are to Wolves what “Grammatizor” and “Voice of Dissent” were to Appeal to Reason.

Wolves might be Rise Against’s safest album yet. If you can get past that, however, Wolves isn’t all that bad of an album.

US household names Rise Against are streaming new material ahead of their full album launch next month. Wolves will be released via Virgin Records on June 9th, and will feature “House on Fire” which you can stream here.

Rise Against’s previous full release was the 2014 effort, The Black Market.

Hey oh! Who’s in the mood for some new Rise Against music? What’s that? You lost interest in them 3 albums ago? Well you should still check out this song because it might be the best Rise Against song I’ve heard in 5 years. “The Violence” is the first single off the band’s new album “Wolves” due out June 9th through Virgin Records (sigh).

Deftones and Rise Against have announced a co-headlining tour with Thrice, which will take place in June and July of this year, and will also be supported by Three Trapped Tigers and Frank Iero and the Patience. The dates and locations are below.

The tour comes in support of Deftones’ latest album Gore, which was released last April. Rise Against’s recent studio album, The Black Market, was released in 2014, while Thrice last released To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere this past May.

In honor of 15 years passing since Rise Against‘s debut album The Unraveling came out, the friendly people at Fat Wreck Chords are releasing the LP on colored vinyl for the first time.

Head over here to get your pre-orders in, and act fast because it’s limited to 500 copies.

The Unraveling is not the first Rise Against album to receive an anniversary reissue from Fat Wreck. In 2013, the label released a 10th anniversary edition of Revolutions Per Minute. Rise Against’s latest album The Black Market came out in July, 2014.

Is there anything worse than a bad song on a nearly perfect album? Probably, but for the sake of our series, Seeing Red, there isn’t. In Seeing Red we ask our staff writers to talk about the songs that they hate on albums that they love.

Today we have Dying Scene writer Matmoksik, who brings up his problems with the unnecessary movie samples in Rise Against’s “Last Chance Blueprint” from their 2003 record, Revolutions Per Minute. You can read his thoughts below.

Chicago punk veterans Rise Against have premiered a music video for their song “People Live Here”, taken from their latest album The Black Market, which was released back in July 2014. You can watch the video below.

Last year, Riot Fest unveiled a Speakers’ Stage, where musicians and activists engage in a panel discussion in front of the audience. Due to the success of last year’s lineup, which included members of Russian female punk group Pussy Riot, Riot Fest is bringing back the Speakers’ Stage.

This year’s speakers will be split over 2 days, with the September 12th event featuring Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin of the “West Memphis Three.” In a panel moderated by Henry Rollins, they will discuss their history and the way music activism contributed to their release after 18 years in prison, after being wrongly accused of the murders of three young boys in 1993. On September 13th, the event will feature Joe Principe (Rise Against), Jeff Pezatti (Naked Raygun,), Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms), Nan Warshaw (founder, Bloodshot Records), Daryl Wilson (The Bollweevils) and Dem Hopkins (owner of the legendary Club Oz).

You can find all the Riot Fest info that Dying Scene has to offer right here.

Virgin Records‘ official website has listed Rise Against on their roster, thus ending their seven-year relationship with Interscope Records, who released the band’s last three albums. So far, there has been no official announcement from Rise Against or Virgin Records, but we’ll keep you posted as more details on this situation come to light.

Band Spotlight

Hailing from Lincoln, UK Nieviem is a newer skate punk band that has been tearing it up for a little over a year. Steadily releasing new songs, live recordings, and EPs, the band continues the trend with their second EP The Hope Is There. The EP is fast and heavy, borrowing from hardcore but still strongly entrenched in 90's skate punk. If that sounds up your alley, then give it a listen here.